Q: Hello I have a question
I used to work with my uncle and his friend and they decided to open a smoke shop and they Told me that if I let them use my name to open the store and put the lease under my name and my uncles son name ( my cousin ) too at the same time they would let me get 35% of the store I trusted them bc they are close people but before opening the store in like a week I realized that the store won’t do good bc of the location so I took my name out of the business but the lease is still under my name and my cousin then I called the landlord and place owner I told them I wanna take my name out of the lease but my cousin name will still be there they told me I have to pay 1600$ for that to take my name out of the lease but I will still be responsible for the rent and everything I don’t understand how I will still be responsible for anything when I took my name out of the lease am I not educated enough to understand it or am I getting finessed?
A:
You MAY be asked to pay something 'up front' to be removed from a lease, but if you ARE removed from the lease, you won't be liable for anything further. The only way you would continue to be liable is if you are NOT removed from the lease.
Get local legal advice before you sign anything -- whoops, you already signed a lease but still, get licensed legal advice before you sign anything MORE or even PAY anything more. You need to be able to understand what your obligations are under the law, and what you can do to limit liability for things you don't control.
Don't 'trust' people because they are close -- keep people close who are trustworthy in other words ....
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